In this 3-hour tutorial by Sarah McLachlan's Lead Engineer Chris Potter, you'll learn how pop music is mixed to get that Big, Pro Sound. In this tutorials Chris reveals the secrets he uses to make Sarah's chart-topping hits sound as amazing as they do.

Chris starts with the basics such as arranging the tracks for a logical mixing progression, including creating Mix groups with Busses, Aux Inputs, and Effects Returns. Once your set up and ready to mix, Chris next walks you through the process of checking phase before getting into a detailed section on mixing drum kits to make them cut through the other elements of the song.

After tightening up the drums, Chris moves on to show you how to mix in the Bass, Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars, and also Keyboards. You'll learn deep secrets about mixing instruments that until now were only available to people who spent years apprenticing in a pro recording studio!

If your song has vocals, you will devour the next section of this tutorial as Chris walks you through the process of mixing Pop vocals. You'll learn about De-Essing a vocal, Compression, and adding the correct Effects to create a signature Pop sound. Next you'll move on to do a background vocal treatment that perfectly compliments the lead vocals in the song. For this information alone the tutorial is worth watching ...

The tutorial concludes with a detailed section on outputting your mix including bouncing techniques, alternative mixes, backing up your session, and even preparing the mix to hand it off to a mastering technician.


Have you heard Sarah McLachlan's music? Then you've heard Chris Potter's skills—he's Sarah McLachlan's Engineer!

This course is also published one our education websites macProVideo.com (macProVideo, macprovideo) and Ask.Video (AskVideo, askvideo).

Mixing Pop in Pro Tools
Genre: Audio
48 Videos
2h 59m